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9 November 2016

Review: 'Something Old, Something New' by Darcie Boleyn (2016)

When Annie Thomas agrees to give her ex away at his wedding to his boyfriend, she thinks she’ll be fine. With her three children at her side, she can handle anything. Then she finds out her gorgeous first ex-husband Evan Llewellyn is flying in from his glamorous life in New York to attend as well!

An unexpected pregnancy ended their relationship and as she stumbles through the ups and downs of life as a working single mum – helping everyone else find a happy ending along the way – Annie refuses to believe their old and incredibly hot spark can still exist.

It’s only when she and Evan are forced to face up to the past together that they’ll discover if they can have their own happily-ever-after too!

So far I haven't had the chance to read author Darcie Boleyn's festive debut novel 'Wish Upon a Christmas Cake', which was released last year. However, when I saw 'Something Old, Something New' was available to review via NetGalley, I decided to request it so I had the chance to check out Darcie's writing for myself. The novel was released by publisher Carina UK in May 2016, so it took me slightly longer than expected to finally pick up the novel, but here we are! Darcie's next book, another festive read titled 'A Very Merry Manhattan Christmas', was just released, so I hoped I'd end up enjoying this novel and the author's writing in order to have another exciting read to look forward to!

Annie Thomas is almost 40 years old, divorced twice, and has three wonderful children: teenager Janis from her first marriage, and Henry and Anabelle from her second. Not exactly the life she had envisioned for herself when she was 18, but that's how it goes. Now her ex-husband and best friend Dex is going to marry his new partner Trevor, Annie is invited to the wedding where she will undoubtedly run into her first husband, Evan. The two of them were crazy about each other, but an unexpected pregnancy changed everything, and even though Annie still has a soft spot for Evan, she knows it would never work between the two of them... Right?

It's great to be given the chance to check out new authors and after having read some positive reviews, I was quite curious to check out author Darcie Boleyn's writing myself. 'Something Old, Something New' is an enjoyable chick lit read that tells the story of single mum Annie, who is trying to figure out life after her two failed marriages. While she's still close with her second husband, Dex, she hasn't seen her first husband and first love, Evan, in years, and in her mind she can't help but feel he's the one that got away. One of the strengths of this novel is the relatively large group of lovely characters at its core. It isn't easy to get readers to warm to a whole collection of different characters, but Darcie Boleyn certainly managed to do this in this novel. I liked Annie, but also really liked how the other characters, such as her ex-husbands, her children, and her best friend, added their own touch to the story.

While I feel this novel definitely has a few great aspects, such as a promising storyline and a good group of characters, I thought the story was just a bit too slow-paced and there wasn't that much going on to keep my interest at all times. It wasn't until about halfway that I felt the story got going and I was keen to keep on reading. Because of this reason I was struggling to give a rating to this book, because I did enjoy it. Overall, I think 'Something Old, Something New' is a warm-hearted and enjoyable romantic comedy read; a bit too one-sided and slow-paced for my personal liking, but a promising first Darcie Boleyn read and I look forward to hopefully being able to pick up one of her other novels in the near future.